TROPICS07: Orbital Geolocated Antenna Temperatures from SmallSat Constellation

The TROPICS mission provides observations of tropical cyclones globally using a constellation of five identical small satellites. Each satellite carries a millimeter-wave spectrometer measuring temperature, humidity, cloud ice, and precipitation structure at high temporal resolution. Data files contain a granule defined as an orbit's worth of data, with approximately 2880 scans and 81 spots.

Use Cases

• Analyzing three-dimensional temperature profiles using seven channels near the 118.75-GHz oxygen line
• Studying water vapor profiles using three channels near the 183-GHz water vapor absorption line
• Measuring precipitation and cloud ice structure via channels near 90 GHz and 205 GHz
• Conducting high-temporal-resolution investigations of tropical cyclone intensity and structure

Strengths

• Data is collected by a constellation of five identical satellites, providing multiple observation sources
• Each data granule contains approximately 2880 scans, representing a complete orbit
• The mission provides nearly all-weather observations of key atmospheric variables

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are unknown from the provided metadata
• License information is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' or 'None' across platforms
• The dataset's exact size and row count are not specified

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC

Collection Method

Data collected by the TROPICS constellation of five small satellites hosting passive microwave spectrometers.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:20:20.201223

Geography

Global, with focus on tropical cyclone regions